„We could see Kathmandu in the distance, the dust slowly rising from the city. A huge horizontal cloud of dull yellow dust. Phone lines were down. We had no idea how bad it was. I instantly thought about the guide and now friend I had spent the last days with. I thought about him covered in rubble. I called him every five minutes hoping something would change, but the phone lines were dead. After a few hours, we started to realize how bad it was in Kathmandu and around the villages, but we couldn’t conceptualize 8.000 people having died in this catastrophe.

I’m happy to say that my friend is okay, but his home, like many others, was destroyed. Families in Nepal are large and so this earthquake has left probably half a million people homeless during rainy season. People are dealing with loss of loved ones, loss of shelter, loss of safety and a sense of sanity. The aftershocks were numerous, one every hour or two. Each time, everyone is filled with a new fear and it makes it harder for people to move forward and try to get at least some parts of life back to normal.“

„The most important thing in the first weeks after the quake and still now is providing food, temporary shelter (tents), medicine, and water purification tablets to the people in remote villages whose homes have been destroyed. Many of them are not being reached even still. Some villages in Nepal have all supplies carried in by foot in daily life because they’re in the mountains and the earthquake has caused landslides which make this impossible. Plus supplies are being snatched up everywhere making it harder as well.“

“We’ve been trying to fill in the gaps while bigger aid organizations get everything sorted. It’s like that with bigger orgs; they will start with largely populated areas but it takes them a while to get to the smaller places.”

„The main two groups working in Nepal that my funds support are:Elina, a 24 year old Nepalise woman living in the US and working with her father, uncle, and friends from Kathmandu University. Amazing work!Jaswant, a Nepalise man living in the US and coordinating several teams in Nepal to deliver supplies. Also amazing work!“

Zur aktuellen Finanzlage und den ersten Ergebnissen des Projekts:

„So far I’ve raised $6,200 and I’m trying to get to $10,000 by the end of the month. We’ve delivered supplies to around 1,900 people in five villages. Basically $1,000 is enough to bring supplies to around 200 – 300 people to last them for 1-2 weeks. Recently we helped a disability center; around 40 disabled people, mostly women and children, and the ones who care for them. Their center was destroyed in the earthquake. We also helped an orphanage of 28 children and we will be funding their rebuild soon.“

„Nepal is truly one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, I really connected and fell in love with its people. It has been hard to deal with the concept that so many of them are suffering. At first I was angry, but anger doesn’t do anything. Now I just want to help them as much as I can and I think we’re well positioned to do it.“